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Review: Mad Max: Fury Road

Warning: Spoilers

I’ve heard that the old Mad Max fans didn’t like this movie. I watched the old movies when I was a very young girl and I remember loving them. I actually loved this movie too! Sure, there’s flaws but I loved it anyway. At first, I wasn’t sure about it because it had an odd start. Mad Max is actually crazy and seeing dead people, but they never explain what’s up with that. Max started out as a cop with a family in the original movie. They don’t really go into why the War Boys have a half-life and need “blood bags” or what actually happened to the earth. Is everything from the past movies? If so, I hope George fills us in with the future movies, so we don’t have to re-watch the old ones.

Also, the star wasn’t Mad Max. Despite that the role of Mad Max was fairly muted and took a backseat, Tom Hardy did very well with what he was given. The star of the movie was Imperator Furiosa. She’s a one armed, one woman, badass character. Kudos to George Miller and Charlize Theron for such a strong female role. In fact, I rather loved the The Vuvalini (The Clan of Many Mothers). Melissa Jaffer as the Keeper of the Seeds was a sassy old lady. Her death got me in the feels too.

It was pretty much action the whole movie and not a whole lot of dialogue. Normally, I might complain, but it was so interesting and often off-the-wall, that I was entertained the entire time. It was like a circus of action with War Boys swinging back and forth on long poles and doing very crazy things all in the name of securing a place in Valhalla. The Doof Warrior is a blind musician who, via a bungee harness, rides on the front of the Doof Wagon jamming on a flamethrower guitar in front of a wall of speakers. He was hilarious and it was insane! The whole movie was insane, but dammit, I enjoyed it!

There’s a scene between one of the breeders (Riley Keough) and Nux that gets you right in the feels. I felt empathy for the poor boy as everything he knows is crushed. Poor misguided, kicked in the head, Nux. I teared up when he earned his place in Valhalla (whatever, shut up)! I really liked this character and I had an instant connection with him. My husband pointed out where that connection came from, as the actor was Nicholas Hoult who portrayed Hank McCoy in X-Men. I’m becoming a serious Nicholas Hoult fan! The Breeders weren’t bad either, as they were more than just hot bodies. Zoe Kravitz and Riley Keough stuck out for me. Random Fun Fact: Riley Keough is Elvis Presley’s granddaughter.

Of course, there was one other scene that managed to inspire an emotion out of me. When Imperator Furiosa discovered that the Green Place was no more, I felt defeated. They did a good job of making this feel like a huge depressing moment. What were they going to do? What was there left to fight for?

I was genuinely surprised that they chose to fight their way back into the Citadel. I should have seen this coming, but I didn’t expect it. The fight to get away was incredibly difficult. You’d have to be crazy to go back! Then again, the whole movie was insane. There were sand storm tornadoes, creepy deformities, and raging lunatics.

It was so much fun to watch! I am definitely pleased with this movie and I hope they do more with the backstory (at least answer some lingering questions) in the next movie.